The Board of Directors of the VPPPA is pleased to announce the appointment of Christopher Williams as the association’s next Executive Director. 

Everyone can play a role in minimizing workplace risks that lead to injuries, illnesses and fatalities. ASSP encourages involvement in Safe + Sound Week, an annual workplace safety campaign spearheaded by OSHA. The nationwide event takes place Aug. 15-21.

When federal workplace safety inspectors visited three Dollar General stores in Georgia earlier this year, they found exit routes obstructed, boxes of merchandise stacked unsafely and electrical panels hard to access, violations often cited at Dollar General locations.

Despite growing numbers of women in transportation, construction and manufacturing, finding PPE that fits women well remains difficult. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021, women comprised 11% of construction workers, 7.9% of truck drivers, and 29% of manufacturing employees, and their numbers in these fields continue to increase.

The Biden Administration through the interagency National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) launched Heat.gov, a new website to provide the public and decision-makers with educated information to understand and reduce the health risks of extreme heat.

On Tuesday, July 19, 2022, United States legislators, labor leaders, PPE manufacturers, and safety experts met at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. to advocate for heat safety and the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act. 

The signature event of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) returned to Chicago in a big way in June as the occupational safety and health event attracted over 1,000 more attendees than the last time the global conference was held at McCormick Place.

For the second time in a year, the U.S. Department of Labor has cited a Dollar General store in Greencastle for endangering its workers’ safety and continuing the nationwide discount chain’s long history of federal workplace safety violations and penalties.

A federal workplace safety investigation into how an employee suffered serious injuries in January 2022 at a Temple, Texas manufacturing facility operated by Carpenter Co. found the company had not installed adequate machine guards or locking devices on a hot laminating machine to protect workers from unsafe contact with the machine’s operating parts.

In 2022’s first six months, 22 workers have fallen victim to the deadly hazards present in trenching and excavation work – surpassing 15 in all of 2021 – and prompting OSHA to launch enhanced enforcement initiatives to protect workers from known industry hazards.